sessions...

[chadypu]

well i now have a log in script that grabs the correct pass and makes sure you have the correct pass etc...

but i wanna know what is the best way to do a log in...

should i use cookies... or there are ways in mySQL i think... could i also use like the session function with php?

i am very new to cookies and the session function

what is the best method do you think?

how would i go about coding it in?

thanks!
-chady

[pyro]

I would probably go with sessions. See http://us3.php.net/session for more info.

[chadypu]

so i would need to add in a session and have it start on log in... and then grab to see if the session is true on each "member only" page

correct?

is there a way i can store the sessions value in a variable... so i can go like

if ($userloggedin)
{
echo 'whatever';
}

thanks pyro

[pyro]

Well, you'd need to do it a bit differently than that, but it's close:

When thy log in, use something like this to set the session:

session_start();
$_SESSION['loggedin'] = true;

And then, to check if they are logged in, you'd use this:

session_start();
if (isset($_SESSION['loggedin'])) {
#user is logged in
}The main thing to remember is that you must start the session (with session_start()) before you can use it.

[fyrestrtr]

Read this tutorial (http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/authentication.php) which explains a good deal about authentication.

[chadypu]

thanks again pyro :)
and ill look at that tutorial

[pyro]

Sure thing... :)

[chadypu]

Warning: session_start(): Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /home/chadypu/public_html/profile/login.php:10) in /home/chadypu/public_html/profile/login.php on line 49


i got that error

session_start();
$_SESSION['loggedin'] = true;

the bold line is line 49 :-\

[pyro]

Make sure you haven't written any content to the browser before you call session_start()

[chadypu]

thanks again pyro :)
i tried it at the top of my php but not before my html header content

same goes for cookies... you must set the cookie at the top correct?

[pyro]

Yes, any header information must be set before output to the browser has been started (including sessions and cookies).

[chadypu]

all headers except like redirect headers correct?
thanks again

[pyro]

Even redirect headers must be set before content is sent to the browser. With PHP 4, however, you can use ob_start() (http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.ob-start.php) and ob_end_flush() (http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.ob-end-flush.php) to get around it.

[chadypu]

when setting the session how can i include the $uname variable

so on other pages i know what their username is...

how do i put that in the session?

and how could imake the session end... like if they wanted to log out?

[pyro]

To set the session, do something like this:

$username = "foo";
session_start();
$_SESSION['username'] = $username;


And, you use this to end a session:

session_start();
session_unset();
session_destroy();

[chadypu]

alright thanks

[pyro]

You are welcome... :)